Everyone has their favorites, but it will be hard to root against these coaches ahead of the upcoming college football season. Although the concept of likability can change on a dime, I think there are rooting interests for these head coaches outside of just their universities.
No, if you root for a rival team of theirs or view them as a threat getting in the way of what you want for your school, you may not like them. However, from an unbiased and third-party perspective, I am sure there are more people in these respective five guys' corner than people hoping to get a late-night burger from Five Guys. Five Guys around three, am I right?
So what I wanted to do today is outline the five head coaches that I think the national collective may have an easier time rooting for than others. What is important is that this list can change in an instant. We liked Eliah Drinkwitz and Curt Cignetti until we did not; I do not see any of these guys begging for easier schedules. I think it is the mettle that has us inspired by this coaching quintet in some capacity.
Let's start with an up-and-coming offensive mind who seemingly did the impossible only a year ago.
5. SMU Mustangs head coach Rhett Lashlee
Despite having a season for the ages last year, I am still quite high on what Rhett Lashlee can do leading the SMU Mustangs this year. Assuming they hold steady and build off what they did a year ago, they might make the College Football Playoff again. At this time, they are the team I view as the most formidable challenger to the Clemson Tigers in the ACC yet again. Can they actually beat them this time?
SMU is a program that not only leveled up from the Group of Five, but is tasked with playing in a league that is not geographically beneficial to them in the ACC. They are foregoing so much TV revenue just be to a part of this. SMU was a program left for dead in the wake of Pony Express. They have had their moments in the 2000s, but now is the time for SMU to show it will have staying power.
Lashlee is no longer Gus Malzahn's greatest disciple, as he has become the better coach than his former mentor.
4. Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian
Although Steve Sarkisian was the first head coach I thought of when putting this together, I cannot escape the fact that people really hate Texas. They might be back, mostly because of him, but seeing them ranked No. 1 overall in both preseason polls is a little rich for my taste. The best part is Arch Manning will finally have no choice but to prove if he is as good as his famous uncles and grandfather.
As far as Sarkisian is concerned, the man has been humbled, mostly by his own doing. He is one of the greatest Nick Saban coaching rehabilitation projects to ever come out of Tuscaloosa. Now that Ryan Day has joined the ranks of Dabo Swinney and Kirby Smart as College Football Playoff-winning head coaches, Sarkisian is arguably the next best bet to join them, possibly as soon as this season.
If you can separate Sarkisian from all that comes with Texas, then I think he is quite easy to root for.
3. Illinois Fighting Illini head coach Bret Bielema
I would not say it is immense pressure as much as it is immense opportunity for Bret Bielema this fall. The Illinois Fighting Illini are a fixture inside the top 15 in both preseason polls of note. While few people have the stones to put the Illini into the 12-team Playoff field right now, they are certainly among everyone's first four teams out. If the Big Ten gets a fourth team in again this season, my bet will be on the Illini.
Bielema was a great head coach at Wisconsin back in the day. While it did not work out for him at Arkansas, he is now winning at a much more difficult job than both of them combined. Frankly, I think people in Fayetteville and Madison probably wish he was coaching their beloved teams now. While Bielema has rubbed people the wrong way before, his run at Illinois feels authentic and I respect it.
To be quite frank, the Big Ten needs teams like Illinois in the upper middle to strut their stuff this fall.
2. Notre Dame Fighting Irish head coach Marcus Freeman
This is the ultimate shocking development. Somehow, some way, Marcus Freeman has made Notre Dame, dare I say it, likable? As is the case with Steve Sarkisian at Texas, we have to separate the head coach from the program. Freeman was promoted from within when Brian Kelly up and left South Bend for perceived greener pastures at LSU. It took a few years, but Freeman has the look of a champion.
While it remains to be seen if Notre Dame will ever win a national championship as an independent in the modern world of college football, Freeman will have the Fighting Irish back in the Playoff once again. There is even an outside shot that they can get the No. 1 seed. They would have to go undefeated, as well as see some levels of chaos happen in the Big Ten and SEC. But I am not ruling it out.
Freeman making Notre Dame tolerable from a national perspective is a testament to his character.
1. Arizona State Sun Devils head coach Kenny Dillingham
Without question, everyone's second-favorite head coach is Arizona State's Kenny Dillingham. After helping Bo Nix achieve greatness at Oregon, alma mater came calling. Dillingham is the one who finally awoke the former sleeping giant hiding in The Valley of the Sun. He had ASU going from seemingly worst-to-first in the new Big 12. I love the Sun Devils' chances of making the Playoff again.
While I do not know what the ceiling is for Dillingham at Arizona State as a part of the new Big 12, there is an undeniable power void at the top of the conference, one that was vacated by Oklahoma and Texas' exodus to the SEC. If Dillingham can have the Sun Devils in and around the Playoff mix for the next few years, they will build a statue for him outside of Sun Devil Stadium. The guy is beloved!
The goal this year for Arizona State is to win the Big 12, make the Playoff and win a Playoff game.